Hamas is forcefully denying reports attributed to one of its senior figures regarding the filling of leadership gaps following Israel’s extensive campaign that eliminated most of the organization’s political and military command structure, as well as top figures who had been running Gaza before the war.
In an official statement, Hamas insisted that “the information attributed to a leading source in the movement regarding escalation and the filling of leadership gaps is baseless.” The group added that publishing such information “would expose leaders of the Palestinian people to the risk of attack.”
Israel eliminated the bulk of Hamas’s senior political and military leadership — including the head of the political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, and his successor, Yahya Sinwar. Most members of Hamas’s military council were also killed, among them Mohammed Deif, commander of the military wing, his deputy Marwan Issa, and brigade commanders across the Gaza Strip. Only the Gaza City brigade commander, Azz al-Din al-Haddad, remains.
At the administrative level in Gaza, Israel targeted and killed the head of the Hamas administrative committee, Moath al-Daalis, several deputy ministers, as well as heads of police and internal security services appointed by the group.